- The definition of a cure is a remedy or something that will bring back health.
- An example of a cure is milk to calm mouth after eating spicy food.
- An example of a cure is ice to bring down the swelling of an injury.
- To cure is to restore health, to heal, or to preserve meat, or to process tobacco.
- An example of to cure is to use heavy moisturizer to stop dry, chapped skin.
- An example of to cure it to preserve fish by covering it with salt.
- An example of to cure is to hang tobacco so that it dries and ages.
- a healing or being healed; restoration to health or a sound condition
- a medicine or treatment for restoring health; remedy
- a system, method, or course of treating a disease, ailment, etc.
- spiritual charge of persons in a particular district; care of souls
- the work or position of a curate; curacy
- a process for curing meat, fish, tobacco, etc.
Origin of cureOld French ; from Classical Latin cura, care, concern, trouble ; from Old Latin an unverified form coira ; from Indo-European base an unverified form kois-, be concerned
- to restore to health or a sound condition; make well; heal
- to get rid of or counteract (an ailment, evil, bad habit, etc.)
- to get rid of a harmful or undesirable condition in: with of: cured him of lying
- to preserve (meat, fish, etc.), as by salting or smoking
- to process (tobacco, leather, etc.), as by drying or aging
- to encourage the proper hardening of (concrete or mortar) by regulating humidity and temperature
- to bring about a cure
- to undergo curing, preserving, or processing: tobacco cures in the sun
- a. A drug or course of medical treatment used to restore health: discovered a new cure for ulcers.b. Restoration of health; recovery from disease: the likelihood of cure.c. Something that corrects or relieves a harmful or disturbing situation: The cats proved to be a good cure for our mouse problem.
- Ecclesiastical Spiritual charge or care, as of a priest for a congregation.
- The office or duties of a curate.
- The act or process of preserving a product.
verbcured, cur·ing, cures
- a. To cause to be free of a disease or unhealthy condition: medicine that cured the patient of gout.b. To cause to be free of, to lose interest in, or to stop doing something: a remark that cured me of the illusion that I might be a good singer; a bad reaction that cured him of the desire to smoke cigars; a visit to the dentist that cured her of eating sweets.
- To eliminate (a disease, for example) from the body by medical or other treatment; cause recovery from: new antibiotics to cure infections.
- To remove or remedy (something harmful or disturbing): cure a social evil.
- To preserve (meat, for example), as by salting, smoking, or aging.
- To prepare, preserve, or finish (a substance) by a chemical or physical process.
- To vulcanize (rubber).
- To effect a cure or recovery: a drug that cures without side effects.
- To be prepared, preserved, or finished by a chemical or physical process: hams curing in the smokehouse.
Origin of cureMiddle English, from Old French, medical treatment, from Latin c&umacron;ra, from Archaic Latin coisa-.
Origin of cureFrench, from Old French, from Medieval Latin c&umacron;ratus; see curate1.
- A method, device or medication that restores good health.
- Act of healing or state of being healed; restoration to health from disease, or to soundness after injury.
- A solution to a problem.
- A process of preservation, as by smoking.
- A process of solidification or gelling.
- (engineering) A process whereby a material is caused to form permanent molecular linkages by exposure to chemicals, heat, pressure and/or weathering.
- vicarages of great cure, but small value
- Spiritual charge; care of soul; the office of a parish priest or of a curate.
- That which is committed to the charge of a parish priest or of a curate; a curacy.
(third-person singular simple present cures, present participle curing, simple past and past participle cured)
- To restore to health.
- Unaided nature cured him.
- To bring (a disease or its bad effects) to an end.
- Unaided nature cured his ailments.
- To cause to be rid of (a defect).
- Experience will cure him of his naïveté.
- To prepare or alter especially by chemical or physical processing for keeping or use.
- The smoke and heat cures the meat.
- (intransitive) To bring about a cure of any kind.
- (intransitive) To be undergoing a chemical or physical process for preservation or use.
- The meat was put in the smokehouse to cure.
- (intransitive) To solidify or gel.
- The parts were curing in the autoclave.
From Old French, cure (“care, cure, healing, cure of souls”), from Latin cura (“care, medical attendance, cure”)